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Island Boats News

23 Oct 2012

Aluminium Boats Australia Building Ferry

Seychelles

Inter-Island Boats who operate under the Cat Coco’s brand have placed an order with Aluminium Boats Australia  for a One2three designed 35m catamaran, for use on their ferry runs between Male, Praslin and La Digue islands. One2three have optimised the hull to suit the additional passengers and cargo resulting in significant fuel savings over their existing fleet. The new hull has a shape that is also suitable for the offshore nature of the route, and it will be fitted with a Humphree interceptor ride control system to further enhance the sea keeping and passenger comfort.

14 Jan 2009

Island Boats Delivers Second Crewboat

The Swordfish, Christened January 14 on Bayou Teche, is a sister-ship in all but two significant features to the Bourbon Libeccio delivered earlier in 2008 from Jeaneratte Louisianaís Island Boats. The move from green for the 175 by 32 ft hull to a deep royal blue is the result of an ownership change from Rigdon to GulfMark in the intervening months. The second difference results from the advent of Tier II engine technology. While the Bourbon Libeccio was powered by four Cummins KTA50 engines rated at for 1800 HP each 1900-RPM…

13 Dec 2007

Island Boats Building Crewboats

Island Boats is located on a 6.5-acre site with 30,000 square feet of covered and enclosed shops as well as a 10,000 square foot paint shop along Bayou Teche in New Iberia, La.. With a strong reputation for catamarans and a wide variety of unique aluminum boats delivered from their yard, Island Boats is now building four crewboats. “These are our fist crewboats,” said company president Miles Thomas, “But we have built many different types of vessels from which we can draw design ideas. The boats, a pair each, for two customers, include two 175 x 32 ft.

14 Jan 2004

Feature: Passenger Vessels : What's in Store in 2004?

The passenger vessel market is a classic mature marine market. Segments of it are doing well, while other parts have literally died. For example, the overnight segment of the market saw one substantial vessel delivered in 2003 with none on the horizon for 2004. The Empress of the North, a 360-ft. sternwheeler was put into service in September working the West Coast-Alaska route. Now that ice is a problem in Alaska, the vessel is working the Columbia River system in the Northwest U.S. The vessel was the largest vessel ever built by Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, Freeland, Wash. and is owned by American West Steamboat Company, Portland, Ore. Developing overnight service is the most difficult part of the passenger vessel industry to get established.

04 Jun 2004

Emerging from Fog

The various segments of the passenger vessel industry have undergone significant transformation in the last 12 months. It looks stronger as we head into the last six months of the year with ferries and charter yachts leading the way. Frankly, a year ago the passenger vessel industry was in some disarray faced with developing a security plan to meet the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 passed in Congress in wake of terrorism threats. Developing such a comprehensive plan by the end of 2003 proved to be an almost impossible task for an industry made up of mostly small boat owners. Coming to the rescue was the industry's trade association the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA). They developed the PVA Industry Standard for Security of Passenger Vessels and Small Passenger Vessels.

10 Feb 2005

Memo to the New Staten Island Ferries: Welcome to New York

How long does it take to build a double-ended municipal ferryboat? Any boat with two bows should have two answers, if not more. If by "build a ferryboat" we mean from the moment we start laying the keel to the moment the boat hits the water, we could say a ferryboat takes eleven months to build. Or anyway, that's how long it took Marinette Marine, Inc., a division of Manitowoc Corporation, to build the first in "the new Kennedy class" - at 310-feet and 7.1 million pounds loaded, with a $40-million price tag, the largest vessel constructed by the yard. Altogether, there are three. "The second two were identical," said Marinette Marine's Duane Roehm, Vice-President, Program Management and Planning, "but during the construction of the first, there was a strike.

10 May 2005

Island Boats to Construct 65-ft. Catamarans

Island Boats, Inc., New Iberia, La., has been contracted to construct two 65-ft. aluminum catamarans for delivery to a Boston customer. The vessels will be delivered with a USCG SubChapter K Certificate of Inspection for 200 passengers and are being designed by Pete Melvin of Morrelli and Melvin Design, Long Beach, Calif. The vessels will be powered by twin MTU Series 60 main diesels developing 600 hp each and should drive the vessel to a cruising speed of 21 knots fully laden. The vessels will have an enclosed air-conditioned main cabin and open air seating on the upper deck. The vessels will provide daily passenger service to the Boston Harbor Islands and will be available for winter charter at the end of the summer season.

02 Jun 2005

Island Boats to Build 65-ft. Catamarans

Island Boats, Inc. of New Iberia, La., has been contracted to build two 65 ft. aluminum catamarans for delivery to a Boston customer. The vessels will be delivered with a USCG SubChapter K Certificate of Inspection for 200 passengers and are being designed by Pete Melvin of Morrelli and Melvin Design, Long Beach, Calif. The vessels will be powered by twin MTU Series 60 main diesels developing 600 hp each and should drive the vessel to a cruising speed of 21 knots fully laden. The vessels will have an enclosed air-conditioned main cabin and open air seating on the upper deck. The vessels will provide daily passenger service to the Boston Harbor Islands and will be available for winter charter at the end of the summer season.

05 Jun 2007

Hawaiian Eco-tour Boat In Service

Earlier this year, Hawaii’s Pacific Whale Watch Foundation took delivery of their latest catamaran, the M/V Ocean Discovery, from Island Boats of Jeanerettt, La. Like the earlier, Seattle-built M/V Ocean Voyager, a pair of Cummins KTA19 M4 engines delivering 700 hp each to propellers powers the new vessel. The engines on the new boat turn through Twin Disc “Quickshift” gearboxes allowing the vessel to be stopped and reversed quickly in emergency situations without harming the passengers. The vessel’s varied seating arrangement provides excellent viewing of the Hawaiian scenery and aquatic life at speeds up to 26-knots. At 65 by 28-feet the new boat has seating for 163 and is licensed to a passenger capacity up to 149 people.

07 Aug 2003

Feature: No More Boat Trucking for Island Boats

While the market news from the passenger vessel industry has been anything but bright, a few shipyards are building new facilities to better serve their customer base. One of the best examples is Island Boats, Jeanerette, La., Island Boats formerly was located on a very dry patch of land overlooking Highway 90 near New Iberia, La. . After construction, their vessels had to be trucked to the Port of Iberia, several miles away. "The cost to us and inconvenience to others in the Port was becoming a major problem as our boats got bigger," said Miles Thomas, president of the firm. The firm solved this problem in May by moving to a six acre plot of land that backs up to Bayou Teche, approximately eight miles from the Baldwin Canal that has direct access to the Intercoastal waterway.

27 Nov 2002

Interesting Repair Jobs in GOM

Today's commercial vessel owners are becoming increasingly creative in order to extend the life of existing vessels. Typically, a commercial steel hull can last for more than 50 years. However, rugged use may call for extensive repair of a vessel to keep it sailing. Market changes may demand that a vessel originally design for one mission is converted to a new and hopefully more profitable use. Most repair work done in shipyards is for five-year regulatory inspections to meet Coast Guard requirements. Often shafts and props are repaired during this inspection, as are sea chests and rudders. Anodes may be replaced as well. A high profile…

06 Dec 2002

Old Boats, New Beginnings

Today's commercial vessel owners are becoming increasingly creative in order to extend the life of existing vessels. Typically, a commercial steel hull can last for more than 50 years. However, rugged use may call for extensive repair of a vessel to keep it sailing. Market changes may demand that a vessel originally design for one mission is converted to a new and hopefully more profitable use. Most repair work done in shipyards is for five-year regulatory inspections to meet Coast Guard requirements. Often shafts and props are repaired during this inspection, as are sea chests and rudders. Anodes may be replaced as well. A high profile…

01 Nov 2002

Ferry Fleet Standardizes to Cummins Power

In order to preserve Bald Head Island's natural tranquility, its developers have banned cars, and residents have to get around by golf cart and bicycle. Travel to and from the island is by a small fleet of aluminum hulled crew boats. When it came time for the owner's to build a new boat and repower the existing two-cycle boats, they shopped hard and finally settled on Cummins KTA 19M3 engines producing 640 hp each with a Heavy Duty rating. All told, they have ordered six of these well-proven engines. Two will go into a 65-ft. (19.8-m) aluminum boat in January 2003. These will be coupled to ZF665A gears with a 1.75:1 ratio turning 32x34-inch four blade Michigan propellers.

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